Vampires Are Better Than Religious People: A Review of “Bloodlines” and Quick Summary of “Vampire Academy”
During the last year, I have been listening to the entirety of Vampire Academy audiobooks and the first book of the Bloodlines series through my car rides between my house and school. The books in total should have taken me 87 hours to get through, but actually took about 70 hours with me listening to the book at 1.25x speed. I was able to listen to Rose Hathway from the start of her adventures with saving her best friend, Vasilisa "Lissa" Dragomir, to her finding love through all the wrong methods. Hathway lost her friend and somewhat boyfriend, Mason, who died at the hand of the undead version of vampires, Strigoi, when he ran back to save her. I ended up crying as I pulled up to my house and my mom looked at me concerned seeing the tears running down my face. I got secondhand embarrassment as I listened to Rose with her three love interests, Mason, Adrian, and Dimitri, and gasped as she broke Adrian’s heart when she got back together with Dimitri. I was able to laugh, cry, and blush as I listened to all the Vampire Academy novels throughout my drives with enjoyment. It was enough to make me start the sequel of the Vampire Academy novel series called Bloodlines.
This brings us to the main topic of this article which is the treatment of the main character of Bloodlines, Sydney Sage. Sage was a supporting character who appeared in the fourth book out of the six in the Vampire Academy series. She works for a somewhat religious cult of humans that work together to ensure that other humans do not find out about the vampires, Moroi and Strigoi, or the hybrid vampires, Dhampir. They’re called the Alchemists. She helped Hathway through during her time in Russia and escaped from jail when she was falsely accused of the murder of Queen Tatiana, the Queen of the Moroi Court. In the book, Bloodlines, Sage is working to hide Lissa’s half-sister, Jillian Mastrano Dragomir, from the rest of the Royal Court. During the Bloodlines and as I am starting the second book, The Golden Lily, there are a lot of displays of how the Alchemist organization has subjected Sage to criticism and discrimination. Sage’s father raised her with an iron fist to shape her into an Alchemist that he could be proud of since he had no sons. When her sister was sexually assaulted by her father’s apprentice, Sage knew her father would listen to his poster golden boy rather than his own daughter. Sage turned to a Moroi, nicknamed Zmey in Russian or the Serpent in English, Ibrahim Mazur, to get revenge which started her working with the races she was taught to hate. Mazur was then able to attack her sister’s attacker.
Sage continued to work with Morois and Dhampirs only to eventually get in trouble with the Alchemists. They called her a “vamp lover,” a slur they have made for Alchemists who have been led astray from their religious beliefs and think that all vampires and hybrids are abominations working against God. She was put on house arrest and her father scrutinized her, threatening to bring her younger sister into alchemy in her place. She was forced to work with her sister’s attacker who wanted to get her reeducated and ensure Sage could not share his secrets. It took him being counted as a Moroi blood dealer to prove to the Alchemists that he was no good.
Even though her own people called her names and no one knew her for her, the Morois and Dhampirs did not treat her the same. The Dragomir sisters viewed her as a protector and aid, Hathway viewed her as a friend, and Adrian viewed her as someone who could be anyone she wanted to be. All of this is due to her support time and time again to help those in need even though it all started as a way to pay back Zmey. The vampires she was taught to hate have shown her more love than the organization she has been a part of all of her life.